The Russian lower house has passed the bill that removes a ban on advertising on paid cable TV in cases when at least three quarters of the content used by channels is “national product” made using Russian investments.

The initiative had been drafted by MP Olga Timofeyeva of the
parliamentary majority United Russia party following numerous
complaints from the mass media community on the federal law
banning any commercials on paid cable and satellite channels that
came into effect from January 1, 2015.

The new bill allows advertising on paid satellite and cable TV
channels if 75 percent or more of their content is “national mass
media product” – a freshly-minted legal term meaning that at
least 50 percent of investment in the program, film or any other
TV content came from Russian companies, individuals or
government. However, translation of imported materials is not
considered production and its cost is not added to the Russian
share of investment.

The motion puts the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service in charge of
labeling TV content as national product as well as of monitoring
the TV channels for violations of the new amendments when they
come into force.

The necessity for corrections has arisen when it became clear
that the federal ban on commercials on paid TV channels, while
not applying to major federal broadcasters, made life extremely
difficult for small private TV channels in Russian regions,
putting them on the brink of bankruptcy.

The issue was raised at Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference
at the end of last year -Aleksandr Brechalov of the mass centrist
political movement All-Russian Popular Front told the president
that once the restrictions are imposed, they could affect over 60
million customers and lead to the loss of about 1,700 jobs in the
mass media.

Political and human right groups appealed to the authorities to
revoke the advertising ban, viewing it as a restriction of the
freedom of speech.

Putin hinted at possible changes during the press conference.
Later, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RT that he expected the president to
support the partial lifting of the ban.

“I have no doubt that Mr. President will pay due attention to
this initiative by the Popular Front in order to render some help
to cable TV stations broadcasting through cable networks that are
right now facing very serious financial problems in their
activities,” Peskov said.

The amended bill will come into force as soon as it is officially
published in the mass media.